Sixteen people have been confirmed dead in a 10 vehicle pile-up accident on the N3 southbound between Peter Brown and Chatterton Road off-ramps in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday morning.
Netcare 911’s Shawn Herbst told SA Trucker that paramedics arrived on the scene at 03h11 to find a fully laden minibus taxi and other vehicles on fire.
Speaking on Ukhozi FM, KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport spokesperson, Kwanele Ncalane, said that two trucks, a minibus taxi, a bakkie, car and five other vehicles were involved in the accident.
He said that four vehicles including a taxi, caught fire following the crash.
“So far, emergency services have declared 16 people dead. All the deceased were in a minibus taxi which caught fire following the crash,” Ncalane said.
“The taxi was coming from Johannesburg going to Harding when it was involved in the horrific accident,” he added.
Watch: N3 southbound closed after Peter Brown, truck on fire following crash
It is alleged that the pile-up accident was caused by a truck that overturned earlier and the other vehicles came and crashed into it.
“A traffic officer who was attending to the overturned truck was lucky to survive the pile-up crash as his vehicle was also hit,” Ncalane said.
The traffic officer went on to rescue a 7-year-old boy from the burning taxi, he said.
The N3 Durban-bound carriageway remains closed to traffic and motorists are advised to find alternate routes and factor in travel time delays.
(Ongoing) 119808: Crash recovery on N3 Eastbound (to DBN) after Peter Brown drive. ROAD CLOSED. Traffic backlog at Tweedie interchange pic.twitter.com/PHaNs2CUdq
— i-traffic KZN (@i_trafficKZN) May 28, 2022
